Report Summary
This report provides members of the Scottish Police Authority's Audit, Risk & Assurance Committee with the most recent internal audit activity, undertaken to test the effectiveness of the internal control environment.
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Meeting
The publication discussed was referenced in the meeting below
Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee - 13 August 2026
Date : 13 August 2026
Location : online
Strategic Alignment
Strategic alignment to strategic police plan and other key enabling strategies
Strategic Outcome 1, 4 and 5.
Authority’s Assurance Framework.
The work of internal audit aligns in support of three of our strategic outcomes as detailed
• Strategic Outcome 1 - Communities are informed and confident that policing is accountable.
• Strategic Outcome 4 - Our workforce is valued, engaged and skilled.
• Strategic Outcome 5 - We are a learning organisation, where decision making and scrutiny are evidence led.
Alignment to risk register and risk appetite
Risk alignment Overarching SR 03 and SR 04.
BDO alignment of specific risks for each audit.
Internal audits provide assurance over the effectiveness of internal controls across policing. This is a key mitigation to SPA’s Strategic Risks SR 03 Accountability for PS and SR 04 Accountability for FS.
Each individual audit assignment addresses risk specific to that audit topic. When BDO drafted the Internal Audit Plan they have aligned specific risks to the audit.
Prior governance
Each internal audit report is approved by the audit sponsors.
Through the audit planning process audit sponsors are identified, they are involved in approval of the Terms of Reference for each audit. Additionally, they are provided the opportunity to comment on the draft audit reports including oversight of managements responses to audit recommendations.
Stakeholder engagement
BDO engage with officers and staff across policing.
In producing the audit plan, identifying the areas of the business to be audited, there is stakeholder engagement.
There is also stakeholder engagement between audit and inspection bodies to seek to minimise duplication of efforts.
During audit fieldwork there is stakeholder engagement via officer and staff interviews across policing, details of officers and staff interviewed is appended to each internal audit report. When the audit has concluded there is ongoing stakeholder engagement to ensure recommendations are addressed and the associated risk is mitigated.
